Six digital health start-ups from five countries have officially become the first cohort of the Edison Accelerator in Canada – a program designed by GE Healthcare and delivered in collaboration with Nex Cubed to accelerate, validate, and scale innovative solutions that address important challenges in the healthcare sector.

The companies all focus on applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) to augment medical imaging with the potential to transform how healthcare is delivered. AI is poised to increase productivity and the efficiency of care delivery and allow healthcare systems to provide better care to more people. AI can help improve the experience of healthcare practitioners, with the goal of enabling them to spend more time in direct patient care and reducing burnout.

The selected companies were chosen as they demonstrated innovative and scalable solutions to pressing problems in the healthcare sector. “GE’s Edison Digital Health Platform is designed with specific focus on hosting applications developed by innovative third parties. It comes with a rich set of development tools to build and integrate applications. We are starting to see the use of AI in clinical practice and our goal is to accelerate this by supporting the most promising innovators and playing an active role in the Canadian health tech ecosystem.” said Paritosh Dhawale, PhD, SVP and GM, Edison Digital Health Platform at GE Healthcare.

As such, in addition to the six startups, Circle Cardiovascular Imaging, a prominent global medical imaging company, who is already collaborating and has integrated its stroke-focused AI-based tools with GE Healthcare’s FastStroke processing platform, is leveraging the Edison Accelerator to accelerate the integration of its StrokeSENS software with the Edison Platform.

Over the next three months, the seven companies will test their solution within the Edison Digital Health Platform, which takes a vendor-agnostic approach to developing and deploying Artificial Intelligence at scale integrated within the clinical workflow. Each company will get a customized program plan and hand-picked mentors with the aim to accelerate integration and commercialization.

“Nex Cubed has a successful heritage of startup formation and acceleration for companies ranging from ideation to innovation, angel to seed, and growth to IPO. This enables us to work with companies at any stage, across the globe from the USA, Luxembourg, Singapore, Korea, Canada and beyond,” said Marlon Evans, CEO at Nex Cubed. “Through our partnership with GE Healthcare, we are able to accelerate the growth and impact of innovative digital health solutions tackling critical issues within the healthcare ecosystem.”

The program culminates with an Innovation Showcase during which all participants will present to a network of investors, potential business partners and customers, who could help take their companies to the next level. Subject to applicable regulatory authorizations, successful applications may have the opportunity to be distributed through the GE Healthcare Marketplace after culmination of relevant steps that include commercial distribution agreements. GE Healthcare Marketplace is GE Healthcare’s online store that allows customers to find and buy applications and algorithms from a range of third-party developers that can be integrated within their clinical and operational workflows to help healthcare providers improve outcomes for patients.

About GE Healthcare:

GE Healthcare is the $17.7 billion healthcare business of GE (NYSE: GE). As a leading global medical technology, pharmaceutical diagnostics and digital solutions innovator, GE Healthcare enables clinicians to make faster, more informed decisions through intelligent devices, data analytics, applications and services, supported by its Edison intelligence platform. With over 100 years of healthcare industry experience and around 48,000 employees globally, the company operates at the center of an ecosystem working toward precision health, digitizing healthcare, helping drive productivity and improve outcomes for patients, providers, health systems and researchers around the world.

About Nex Cubed:

Nex Cubed is an investor and innovation partner that empowers startups, investors, corporates, academia, and governments to bring new technologies to market, helps rising companies scale, and provides paths to liquidity – the power of three. Over the last 5 years, Nex Cubed has established itself as a leader in corporate innovation and startup acceleration, creating a global ecosystem of 3 industry-specific COEs (Frontier Tech, Digital Health, and FinTech), 81 portfolio companies, 20+ corporate partners, 100+ investment partners, 50+ strategic advisors, and over 140 mentors. To date, Nex Cubed portfolio companies have an aggregate value of over half a billion dollars and nearly 60% of the Nex Cubed portfolio is led by female or minority founders.

BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), a leading global medical technology company,  announced a collaboration agreement with Labcorp, a leading global life sciences company, creating a framework to develop, manufacture, market and commercialize flow cytometry-based companion diagnostics (CDx) intended to match patients with life-changing treatments for cancer and other diseases.

The agreement creates a framework for BD and Labcorp Drug Development to collaborate on flow cytometry-based CDx opportunities with pharmaceutical partners. The two companies bring together capabilities that comprise an end-to-end solution for CDx development for the pharmaceutical industry. Their joint offering ranges from exploratory panel development to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of diagnostic and IVD kit manufacturing and distribution.

Flow cytometry is a trusted and powerful tool for analyzing cells to better understand disease, and it has tremendous untapped potential as a companion diagnostic in oncology and other therapeutic areas,” said Dr. Bill Hanlon, chief scientific officer of Labcorp Drug Development. This strategic collaboration with BD, a pioneer and global leader in flow cytometry, is an exciting step toward increasing adoption and ultimately bringing innovative new companion diagnostics to market to help identify patients who could benefit most from appropriate treatments.

Selecting the optimal first-line therapy for patients with cancer by using companion diagnostics can be critical to ensuring the best outcomes and time and cost savings. Today’s companion diagnostic tests commonly involve technologies such as immunohistochemistry (IHC), fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), polymerase chain reaction (PCR), next-generation sequencing (NGS) and imaging. Flow cytometry is an emerging technology in the field.

“In the companion diagnostic landscape, there is a clear and urgent need for high sensitivity and multiplexing capabilities, and that is where flow cytometry can help,” said Puneet Sarin, president of BD Biosciences. “BD and our dedicated CDx team are uniquely positioned to advance flow cytometry as a companion diagnostic tool, and we are pleased to join forces with Labcorp, a trusted global leader in diagnostic testing and drug development, to pursue opportunities with the pharmaceutical industry to develop new companion diagnostics that can potentially improve patient outcomes and drive us forward in advancing the world of health.”

About BD

BD is one of the largest global medical technology companies in the world and is advancing the world of health™ by improving medical discovery, diagnostics and the delivery of care. The company supports the heroes on the frontlines of health care by developing innovative technology, services and solutions that help advance both clinical therapy for patients and clinical process for health care providers. BD and its 75,000 employees have a passion and commitment to help enhance the safety and efficiency of clinicians’ care delivery process, enable laboratory scientists to accurately detect disease and advance researchers’ capabilities to develop the next generation of diagnostics and therapeutics. BD has a presence in virtually every country and partners with organizations around the world to address some of the most challenging global health issues. By working in close collaboration with customers, BD can help enhance outcomes, lower costs, increase efficiencies, improve safety and expand access to health care.

CCS, which now includes CCS Medical and CCS Health, has announced an expansion of its business. The company — a leading provider of home-delivered medical supplies for those living with diabetes or other chronic conditions — will be expanding the education, monitoring, and coaching services it offers to create a more collaborative approach to care. This new model incorporates the delivery of products with access to accredited clinicians supported by proprietary data and technology to simplify the patient experience. In addition, CCS has created a new strategic advisory board and added three new advisory board members to help redefine chronic care management at home.

CCS supports more than 200,000 patients living with chronic conditions in the United States and delivers more than 1.2 million shipments of medical supplies to patients in their own homes. Through its Health and Medical units, CCS works with more than 400 employers and more than 1,800 managed care plans nationally to offer a more hands-on, educational approach to supporting their population of patients with diabetes. After over a quarter of a century delivering medical supplies and more than a decade providing chronic care management services for individuals living with diabetes, CCS has the experience, data, and patient and provider relationships in place to create a new era of patient-driven, proactive chronic care management.

CCS now has two main divisions. First, CCS Health couples high-touch, human engagement with technology to assist patients with education and coaching on disease management and product adoption. Second, CCS Medical offers the most advanced technology and trusted brand names in continuous glucose monitoring and insulin pump therapy, along with the other medical product and device needs of the patient.

With CCS as their partner, patients are more likely to get on therapy and stay on therapy, improving patient outcomes and reducing costs. For example, CCS tracked an average drop of 1.15 points in patient A1C values for a large national health plan as part of CCS’s LivingLinked™ offering, which is a clinical education program. Also, CCS’s diabetes clinical care management program, called LivingConnected®, with a large employer group yielded a cost reduction of 45% for those enrolled vs. not enrolled.

“The LivingConnected program through CCS has increased adherence to the diabetes standards of care, improving the health of our employees and their spouses with diabetes, while generating substantial savings for program participants,” said Heather Hormel, Senior Director of Human Resources at United Regional Health Care Group. “Given the success we’ve had with our employee population, any organization like ours would embrace a solution that can deliver the clinical and financial results we’ve achieved through the partnership with CCS.”

“The number of people being diagnosed with diabetes in the United States has been on the rise and is expected to continue to accelerate — and the pandemic has only made things worse,” said Tony Vahedian, CEO of CCS. “It’s clear how we have historically provided care to patients with diabetes needs to evolve. That’s why we made the decision to accelerate updates to our own business model. These changes will enable our team to surround patients with the tools, resources, and support they need to manage their own care in a simpler way.”

As part of the company’s expansion, CCS kicked off a new Strategic Advisory Board to help integrate additional trusted clinical and technological leadership guidance as part of this business transition. The distinguished experts in their field who comprise the CCS Strategic Advisory Board include:

Francine Kaufman, MD — Distinguished Professor Emerita of Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Francine is also a practicing endocrinologist, as well as the former president of the American Diabetes Association.

Christos M. Cotsakos, Ph.D. — Founder, chairman, and CEO of Pennington Ventures, a digital transformation, financial, and strategic management firm. He is the former chairman and CEO of E*TRADE and took the company public in 1996 as one of a handful of internet entrepreneurs and pioneers. He also served as global co-CEO of AC Nielsen and co-founded ArrowPath Venture Capital. Christos has held senior strategic roles at the intersection of healthcare and technology for more than 25 years.

Jean-Claude Saghbini — Chief Technology Officer at Lumeris. With decades of technology leadership experience, he has held leadership positions at a wide array of healthcare companies, including Wolters Kluwer Health and Cardinal Health.

“Considering the majority of people with newly diagnosed diabetes do not receive adequate care management education and training in the first year, it’s no surprise that the healthcare industry and employers continue to grapple with less than optimal adherence and outcomes with this population of patients,” said Dr. Kaufman. “I’m excited to join the advisory board at CCS — they understand that with the right supplies, personalized education, ongoing coaching, and home-based monitoring, people living with diabetes can achieve improved health outcomes.”

About CCS

CCS is a leading provider of clinical programs and home-delivered medical supplies for those living with chronic conditions, particularly diabetes. CCS supports 200,000+ patients living with chronic conditions in the United States and delivers more than 1.2 million shipments of medical supplies to patients in their own homes each year. The company works specifically with health plans and employers to offer both technology and hands-on educational services to holistically support patients living with diabetes. After serving patients for more than 25 years, CCS has the experience, data, and patient and provider relationships in place to create a new era of home-based, proactive chronic care management.

Lucid Diagnostics Inc., a commercial-stage, cancer prevention medical diagnostics company, and majority-owned subsidiary of PAVmed Inc.   announced that its subsidiary, LucidDx Labs Inc., has launched four new Lucid Test Centers in Orange County, California, the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas metropolitan area, Palm Beach County, Florida and Columbus, Ohio.

Patients in these metropolitan areas with chronic heartburn, also known as gastroesophageal reflux disease (“GERD”), and an order from their own physician or from a telemedicine physician provided to them after a self-referral, can now undergo a brief, non-invasive, office-based test to detect esophageal precancer before it progresses to deadly esophageal cancer, using Lucid’s EsoGuard® DNA Esophageal Test (“EsoGuard”) on samples collected using its EsoCheck® Cell Collection Device (“EsoCheck”). Lucid believes EsoGuard is the first and only commercially available test capable of serving as a widespread tool to prevent esophageal cancer deaths, through early precancer detection in at-risk GERD patients.

“We are excited to launch the second stage of our Lucid Test Center program, an important pillar of our growth strategy, in several new major metropolitan areas including in the three largest U.S. states,” said Lishan Aklog, M.D., Lucid’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “During the first stage we covered seven, mostly medium-sized, metropolitan areas in the Southwest and Pacific Northwest, which allowed our team to hone our sales processes targeting primary care physicians and to build a robust compliance program. With stage two, during which we project to open centers in nine new metropolitan areas this year, we are establishing a broader, national footprint using demographic and other analytics to select high-value target locations across the country. We are also able to place test centers in locations where existing sales personnel are already having success calling on specialists and institutions and where our prospects for local private payor coverage is strongest as a result of our growing participation in preferred provider networks.”

The test centers are staffed with Lucid-employed nurse practitioners who use EsoCheck to collect surface esophageal cells which are sent to LucidDx Labs for EsoGuard testing. The new Lucid Test Centers operate in leased medical office suites located in Lake Forest, California, Las Colinas, Texas, Delray Beach, Florida, and Columbus, Ohio. The Lake Forest Lucid Test Center is co-located with LucidDx Labs’ CLIA certified, CAP accredited commercial clinical laboratory. Lucid estimates that a single nurse practitioner can perform up to twenty EsoCheck procedures per day and expects each center to cover its personnel and medical office lease costs with only a few tests per week.

About EsoGuard and EsoCheck

Millions of patients with GERD are at risk of developing esophageal precancer and a highly lethal form of esophageal cancer (“EAC”). Over 80% of EAC patients die within five years of diagnosis, making it the second most lethal cancer in the U.S. The mortality rate is high even in those diagnosed with early stage EAC. The U.S. incidence of EAC has increased 500% over the past four decades, while the incidences of other common cancers have declined or remained flat. In nearly all cases, EAC silently progresses until it manifests itself with new symptoms of advanced disease. All EAC is believed to arise from esophageal precancer, which occurs in approximately 5% to 15% of at-risk GERD patients. Early esophageal precancer can be monitored for progression to late esophageal precancer which can be cured with endoscopic esophageal ablation, reliably halting progression to cancer.

Esophageal precancer screening is already recommended by clinical practice guidelines in millions of GERD patients with multiple risk factors, including age over 50 years, male gender, White race, obesity, smoking history, and a family history of esophageal precancer or cancer. Unfortunately, fewer than 10% of those recommended for screening undergo traditional invasive endoscopic screening. The profound tragedy of an EAC diagnosis is that likely death could have been prevented if the at-risk GERD patient had been screened and then undergone surveillance and curative treatment.

The only missing element for a viable esophageal cancer prevention program has been the lack of a widespread screening tool that can detect esophageal precancer. Lucid believes EsoGuard, performed on samples collected with EsoCheck, is the missing element—the first and only commercially available test capable of serving as a widespread screening tool to prevent esophageal cancer deaths through the early detection of esophageal precancer in at-risk GERD patients. An updated American College of Gastroenterology clinical practice guideline and an American Gastroenterological Association clinical practice update both endorse nonendoscopic biomarker tests as an acceptable alternative to costly and invasive endoscopy for esophageal precancer screening. EsoGuard is the only such test currently available in the United States.

EsoGuard is a bisulfite-converted NGS DNA assay performed on surface esophageal cells collected with EsoCheck which quantifies methylation at 31 sites on two genes, Vimentin (VIM) and Cyclin A1 (CCNA1). The assay was evaluated in a 408-patient, multicenter, case-control study published in Science Translational Medicine and showed greater than 90% sensitivity and specificity at detecting esophageal precancer and cancer.

EsoCheck is an FDA 510(k) and CE Mark cleared noninvasive swallowable balloon capsule catheter device capable of sampling surface esophageal cells in a less than five-minute office procedure. It consists of a vitamin pill-sized rigid plastic capsule tethered to a thin silicone catheter from which a soft silicone balloon with textured ridges emerges to gently swab surface esophageal cells. When vacuum suction is applied, the balloon and sampled cells are pulled into the capsule, protecting them from contamination and dilution by cells outside of the targeted region during device withdrawal. Lucid believes this proprietary Collect+Protect™ technology makes EsoCheck the only noninvasive esophageal cell collection device capable of such anatomically targeted and protected sampling. The sample is sent by overnight express mail to Lucid’s CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited laboratory, LucidDx Labs, for EsoGuard testing.

About Lucid Diagnostics

Lucid Diagnostics Inc  is a commercial-stage, cancer prevention medical diagnostics company, and subsidiary of PAVmed Inc. (Nasdaq: PAVM). Lucid is focused on the millions of patients with gastroesophageal disease (GERD), also known as chronic heartburn, who are at risk of developing esophageal precancer and cancer. Lucid’s EsoGuard® Esophageal DNA Test, performed on samples collected in a brief, noninvasive office procedure with its EsoCheck® Esophageal Cell Collection Device, is the first and only commercially available diagnostic test capable of serving as a widespread screening tool to prevent cancer and cancer deaths through early detection of esophageal precancer in at-risk GERD patients. EsoGuard is commercialized in the U.S. as a Laboratory Developed Test (LDT). EsoCheck is commercialized in the U.S. as a 510(k)-cleared esophageal cell collection device. EsoGuard, used with EsoCheck, was granted FDA Breakthrough Device designation and is the subject of multiple ongoing clinical trials. Lucid is building nationwide direct sales and marketing team targeting primary care physicians, specialists, and institutions, as well as a network of Lucid Test Centers where at-risk GERD patients can undergo the EsoCheck procedure for EsoGuard testing.

UniDoc Health Corp., an innovator in the telehealth sector, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a definitive master equipment deployment and services agreement (the “Agreement”) with Claron Health International (Kenya) Limited (“Claron” or the “Partner”) to provide telehealth services in the Republic of Kenya.

Pursuant to the Agreement, UniDoc has agreed to a master deployment agreement and framework for the leasing of certain telehealth equipment and the licensing of related software including the Virtual Care Solutions Model (“VCSM”) kiosks from the Company to Claron for monthly service fees. The VCSM is a proprietary customizable and comprehensive telehealth solution that is currently being developed by the Company and is being designed to integrate a range of physical products, web-based services, and analytical tools, along with access to the Company’s developing network of healthcare providers, pharmacies, and hospitals.

The Company and the Partner agreed to an initial equipment rollout of VCSM kiosks and minimum subscription model pursuant to the Agreement. The Partner anticipates these kiosks will be located at locations throughout the Republic of Kenya. The Agreement provides for an initial minimum of 1,000,000 patient subscribers within 12 months from the date of kiosk installations and has a value of up to approximately US$120 million over the Agreement’s five-year term based on the initial quantity of kiosks. The Agreement also provides for a ramp-up to service for additional patient subscribers. The delivery of initial VCSM kiosks and any ramp-up of additional kiosk locations are all subject to the commercialization of the VCSM kiosk by the Company, completion of successful site studies by both parties and other customary conditions. As at the date of this news release, the VCSM remains under development by the Company and has not generated any revenues. There is no guarantee that any service fees will be paid to UniDoc under the Agreement or that the VCSM will generate any revenues at all.

The Company also agreed to provide certain data management and telecommunications services to be used by the Partner to provide in-suite telehealth and related services in its designated facilities. The software and telecommunications services will provide the Partner with access to an authentication service and on-line portal which permits secure, live-streaming videoconferencing and transmission of diagnostic data between on-site patients physically using individual kiosks units and remote healthcare professionals accessing the portal. Medical personnel for the VCSM kiosks will be coordinated by the Partner.

The Company has agreed to install the VCSM kiosks and perform initial functionality tests at locations to be specified by the Partner. The Company has also agreed to provide to the Partner on-site training, follow-up training, troubleshooting, and certain maintenance services and supplies including hardware support, software updates, data analysis (upon request), and annual on-site testing and maintenance.

The Agreement is for an initial period of five years and automatically renews for an additional five years unless terminated upon written notice by either of the parties. The payment of service fees to UniDoc by the Partner under the Agreement commences only upon delivery of the initial VCSM kiosks by UniDoc to the Partner. A further news release will follow if initial delivery of VCSM kiosks has been successfully made by the Company to the Partner.

UniDoc CEO Antonio Baldassare notes, “UniDoc continues to work towards making health care accessible to everyone. We are excited to work with Claron to bring our Virtual Care Solutions Model to the people of Kenya. Our kiosks will help to allow our Partner’s network of health care professionals connect with patients throughout the country.”

About UniDoc Health Corp.

UniDoc is developing a telehealth solution which is being designed as a self-contained remote virtual clinic within a private kiosk for patients to undergo full consultations as if they were present in a physician’s office. Telehealth opens the doors to a large segment of the population challenged by access, experience or understanding of online computer technology. It is the Company’s belief that physical accessibility is the key to its business proposition. UniDoc is dedicated to unlocking shareholder value by delivering an excellent product and sophisticated commercial network within an expedited timeframe.

About Clarion Health International (Kenya) Ltd.

Claron Health International is a leading International Provider of Medical, Occupational Health, Safety, and Environment Services. We believe in Innovative and Smart healthcare – little solutions to significantly impact clients’ health and wellness. These include Tele-Medicine application, activity monitoring, onsite clinics, and personalized medical care.